Airplane of Will Rogers and Wiley Post showing technicians servicing the exterior, Renton Field, August 1935

• Main Author: Staff Photographer Seattle Post-Intelligencer
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Airplanes > Washington (State) > Renton; Laborers > Washington (State) > Renton; Waterfronts > Washington (State) > Renton; Bodies of water > Washington (State) > Renton; Dogs > Washington (State) > Renton; Post; Wiley; 1898-1935 Rogers; Will; 1879-1935; Orion; Barrow; Point Barrow; Alaska; Siberia
• Online Access: http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/imlsmohai/id/2470

Technicians at Renton Field work on the plane that aviation pioneer Wiley Post planned to fly on an exploratory route to Europe through Alaska and Siberia. It is a hybrid with a Lockheed Orion fuselage and Lockheed Explorer wings equipped with a 550 HP Wasp engine and oversize 260-gallon gas tanks. The large pontoons were installed by Northwest Air Service in Renton. Post and his passenger, humorist Will Rogers, left Renton Field on August 7, 1935. The ill-fated journey ended on August 15 when the plane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska and both men were killed. Will Rogers also known as William Penn Adair Rogers [note from the Library of Congress Authority File]. Handwritten on negative: Wiley Post plane. Handwritten on sleeve: Post, Wiley, Rogers, Will and the plane in which they met death; Northwest Air Service; Berger, Art, section head, aircraft engine dept. 15. Caption information source: P-I research files. Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): September 27, 1935. 1 nitrate negative: b&w; 4 x 5 in.